Topics

Years

A few months ago, Clara and I hit a lovely little breakfast cafe in Ultimo. Their marscapone French toast must have been illegal, it tasted so good. The other thing I remember was a giant sticker on their menu boards behind the counter:

Is that true, or did you read it in the Daily Telegraph?

I thought this was just typical right-left wing jostling, but the last Federal election crystalised this in my mind like so much masrscapone. If marscapone were structured chemically like this. The Australian, another Murdoch rag, wasn’t that much better; though both were just as absorbant for our doggies to do their business.

It’s in this context we picked up a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald this morning to see if it had anything of interest for Clara’s current assignment. In the opinion pages was a large op-ed discussing a lack of Labor policy, alongside letters from the public chiding Mr Abbott for his “dignity to parliament” hypocricy. From the makeup of Abbott’s cabinet to stories about generation Y not being the selfish brats we’re alleged to be, their other pages seemed to have more of this balance as well.

As a recently resettled Australian, for all I know I caught the SMH on a good day. Perhaps (most likely) they’re just as biased as the Tele and Australian. The ownership and web of power behind Australian media is as complex as it is perverted. Still, I feel like picking up a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald again tomorrow. In light of the Tele and Australian, I’m relieved there’s a voice espousing (at least a modicum of) reason in a sea of large-typefaced shameless Ayn Rand nonsense.

While I am wary of the journalistic and business reasons behind the switch, I’ll admit for my own selfish convenience I’m also really liking their tabloid sized paper.